More cases of COVID variants showing up in other zones: Shahab

The Regina area currently may be Saskatchewan’s hotspot for cases of COVID-19 variants of concern, but cases are starting to show up with greater frequency in other locales.

During a media conference Thursday, Dr. Saqib Shahab — Saskatchewan’s chief medical health officer — said cases are popping up in rural areas in the southern part of the province.

“Weyburn and area (and) Moose Jaw and area are seeing an increase in case numbers and variants of concern,” Shahab said. “This just reinforces that while we have significant measures in Regina right now, all of us throughout Saskatchewan should continue to observe everything we’ve been doing.”

According to the Ministry of Health’s daily COVID update Thursday, the Regina region had 895 of the 1,064 cases of variants identified by screening in Saskatchewan. The southeast zone had 66 cases reported, while the south-central area had 63.

On Wednesday, the Regina zone reported 824 variant cases, with the south-central region reporting 56 and the southeast 45.

The Regina region has had 1,579 COVID cases in March, more than twice as many as the Saskatoon zone (605) over the same period.

On Tuesday, the provincial government instituted new public health measures for the Regina region to curb the spread of COVID and the variants. Indoor private gatherings can only include people from the same household, travel into and out of the area isn’t recommended, and restaurants and bars will have to close as of 12:01 a.m. Sunday.

Given variants are showing up in other zones, Shahab was asked Thursday if stricter measures could be implemented in those regions as well. The key, he said, are transmission patterns.

“If you see a number of cases that are linked to a particular outbreak, that can be somewhat reassuring,” he said. “But if you see lots of cases — either variants of concern or otherwise — that are not linked to one another, that speaks to uncontrolled community transmission.

“If you start seeing that in any community, unfortunately, we would have to think of further progressive measures in any specific community that is impacted similar to Regina.”

Two weeks ago, Saskatchewan relaxed its guidelines, allowing people to gather in bubbles comprising up to 10 people from two or three households. That applied to the Regina area too — until Tuesday.

Now, Shahab said, there has been transmission in other areas of the province when groups of up to 10 have gathered. That means more caution is required.

In the meantime, he and other health officials will keep a close eye on the numbers in the Regina area to see if the stricter measures are having an effect.

“It’s a bit early to show impacts and in fact because we have more testing happening, we expect case numbers to rise over the next week or two before they stabilize and start coming down,” Shahab said.

Recent trends

One troubling statistic is the rising number of cases among younger people.

Since the end of February, there have been 1,366 new cases in the 20-to-39 age group, 1,004 cases among those 19 and under, and 898 cases in the 40-to-59 age group.

Over that same time frame, there have been 359 cases among those between the ages of 60 and 79 and only 72 cases in the 80-and-over age group. Vaccinations have been prevalent in those latter two age groups.

Shahab said health officials have received complaints from gyms recently suggesting young people aren’t practising physical distancing or complying with COVID protocols. Since the variants are more transmissible and more virulent, that’s a concern.

“Even young, healthy people can get seriously ill and unfortunately end up in ICU or worse with COVID,” Shahab said. “It’s less common, but with B.1.1.7 (the United Kingdom variant), it has been seen in the U.K.”